Ladies and gentlemen, good day and welcome to the Ambuja Cements Limited Q1 and FY25 earnings conference call. As a reminder, all participant lines will be in listen-only mode, and there will be an opportunity for you to ask questions after the presentation concludes. Should you need assistance during the conference call, please signal an operator by pressing star, then zero on your touch-tone phone. Please note that this conference is being recorded. I now hand the conference over to Mr. Jashandeep from Nomura. Thank you, and over to you, sir. Thank you, Operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining the call. Without much ado, I will transfer the call to Mr. Deepak Balwani, Head of Investor Relations. Mr. Deepak, over to you. Yeah, thank you, Jashandeep. It is indeed my pleasure to welcome all of you to Ambuja's earnings call for Q1, FY 2025. Ambuja Cements Limited, along with its listed subsidiary ACC and Sanghi, is one of India's leading cement companies and a member of the diversified Adani Group, the largest and the fastest growing portfolio of diversified sustainable businesses. I hope you all had a chance to go through our financial results, investor deck, and the press release, which are now available on the company website and on stock exchanges. Joining us on this call, Mr. Ajay Kapur, Chief Executive Officer, and Mr. Vinod Bahety, Chief Financial Officer. I would now like to invite Ajay Ji for sharing his valuable insights on the quarterly performance. Over to you, Ajay Ji. Thank you, Deepak. Good afternoon to all of you. I extend a warm welcome to each of you for joining us in our Q1, FY25 earnings call of Adani Group's cement business for Ambuja, ACC, and Sanghi. We continue to strengthen our position as a market leader in the cement industry. Adani Cement is becoming stronger over time with an intense commitment towards capacity expansion through both organic and inorganic routes, along with efficiency improvement initiatives. Adani Cement's current market share is about 14%, with an internal target of 20% for FY28. To begin with, I would like to share some of the high-level highlights before diving into specifics. Our current cement capacity is 89 million tons, which includes ongoing Penna acquisition. This will help in strengthening our market share in certain markets. We have increased our capacity by 32% since acquisition through both organic and inorganic growth, translating to 21.4 million tons. 275 million tons of new limestone reserves have been secured in the first quarter of FY25. Capacity growth from the current 89 million tons to 140 million tons will be met through internal accruals and operating cash flows. We will continue to remain debt-free during this journey. 4 million tons clinker and 6.4 million tons cement capacity is expected to be commissioned in FY25. To consolidate Q1 FY25 performance, we have achieved a revenue of INR 8,311 crores. This is driven by a strong focus on our micro-market management, expansion of dealer network, blended cement as a mix of the total sales volumes maintained at 86%, premium products as a percentage of trade volume increased by 200 basis points to 24%. On the cost for the quarter was at 4,437 per ton, showing a decline of 3%. This is driven by a 13% decline in energy cost owing to better fuel management, which resulted in reduction in kiln fuel by 17% to ₹1.73 from 208 paise per 1,000 kcal. The transportation cost declined by 8% at ₹1,323 per ton on account of footprint optimization. The secondary lead distance reduced by 9 km to 46 km, and the direct dispatches to customers increased by 4 percentage points to 55%. With the improvement mentioned on the cost run, EBITDA stood at INR 1,280 crores at a margin of 15.4% and EBITDA per ton of ₹807. As of 30th June, the consolidated cash and cash equivalent stood at INR 18,299 crores. Approximately INR 6,000 crore have been utilized, out of which INR 3,300 crore towards our organic and inorganic growth, namely for Tuticorin Grinding Unit acquisition, ongoing CAPEX program, and Penna acquisition. Dividend outflow of INR 630 crore and balance towards working capital, which includes higher receivables during this quarter, higher inventory, lower payables, income tax payout, etc. In the best interest of time, I will not discuss the standalone financial performance of the listed companies separately as they are available on our stock exchanges. Now, I will share with you the progress we have made on our announced long-term strategy plan. As we plan to expand our cement capacity to 140 million tons by FY28, we are pacing well to achieve the stated target. This has also resulted in higher cash outgo as informed above. With the ongoing acquisition of Penna Cement, our operating cement capacity now stands at 89 million tons. We are on course to commission our 4 million tons clinker unit at Bhatapara in Chhattisgarh and the associated grinding units at Sankrail and Farakka, West Bengal, and Sindri in Jharkhand by the end of this financial year. The grinding unit of Salai Banwa in Uttar Pradesh to be commissioned in Q1 of FY26, and brownfield expansion of Bhatinda Grinding Unit in Punjab and Marwar Mundwa Grinding Unit in Rajasthan to be commissioned in Q2 FY26. With commissioning of these projects, we shall be reaching cement capacity of 100 million tons by Q2 FY26, and that indeed will be a great day for us to hit the first 100. Further, clinker unit of 4 million tons at Maratha in Maharashtra and grinding units of VWarisaliganj, Bihar, Kalamboli unit expansion in Maharashtra, Mundra in Gujarat, and Dahej grinding unit expansion in Gujarat are also expected to be commissioned by the end of FY26, enabling us to reach 112 million tons cement capacity by FY26. We have also identified 14 additional grinding unit projects for which land acquisitions and statutory approvals are under progress, which shall enable us to reach 140 million tons by FY28. For the new facilities of 4 million ton clinker line at Bhatapara, 80% of civil work is now complete and major equipment has been received at the site. Expected commissioning is by Q4 FY25. For its corresponding grinding unit in Sankrail and Farakka, West Bengal, civil work of 66% and 60% respectively have been completed and major equipment has been received at the site. Expected completion of these units is Q3 FY25. For the new facility of 4 million ton clinker line in Maratha in Chandrapur, contract has been awarded on EPC vendor. 25% major equipment ordering done by the EPC partner. Project execution work started. Expected commissioning is by Q2 FY26. These kiln lines will have 42 megawatts of waste heat recovery and provision for utilizing 30% alternate fuels in these kilns. The new facilities of 2.4 million ton grinding unit at Salai Banwa in Uttar Pradesh, 11% civil work is now complete and delivery of major equipment commenced at site. Expected completion is Q1 FY26. Major equipment ordering for roller press at Bhatinda Grinding Unit and fly ash Grinding Unit blending system at Kalamboli has also been completed. Now, I will share some of the key initiatives being undertaken for becoming a cost leader in the cement business. Securing major raw materials at cost competitive prices and efficiency and productivity improvement, capex will further help in cost optimization by 8%-10%. First, let me discuss the steps we have taken to lower our energy cost. Our waste heat recovery capacity at the time of takeover around September 2022 was 40 MW, which we are now targeting to increase to 186 MW by March 2025. Currently, the WHRS capacity is at 165 MW. We have earlier announced our investments of 1,000 MW in RE, which is expected to be commissioned by FY2026 and would ensure that 60% of our power requirement would be through green power. This would help in reducing the power cost by INR 90 per ton by FY2028. The first phase of 200 MW is getting commissioned as I speak to you in Q2 FY2025. As previously explained, to meet our requirements, we aim to have captive coal mines. As a result, we are bidding for coal mines in auctions being conducted by the Government of India. A higher share of coal from captive mines and the opportunity to buy imported pet coke will further lower our costs of fuel. Driven by better fuel management and structure initiatives undertaken, our power and fuel costs have decreased 13% to ₹1,304 per ton in Q1 FY25 from ₹1,501 per ton in Q1 FY24. These initiatives include an increase in the share of AFR and WHRS. The share of AFR in fuel mix has improved to 9.3% from 7%. The share of WHRS in power mix has increased to 15.1% from 11.5%. The second cost item is freight and forwarding cost. There are three focus areas of cost reduction here: reduction in lead distance, warehouse optimization, and railroad mix optimization. We are targeting to reduce the average primary lead distance by about 100 km over a period of time. Primary lead distance in the current quarter was 270 versus 275, and secondary lead was 46 versus 55. To further optimize our cost and logistics, we have ordered 11 GPWIS rakes, of which 9 have already been delivered, and the rest are expected to be delivered by the end of Q2 FY25. These rakes will enable cost-efficient clinker movement from the mother plants. In addition to these, we have also ordered 26 BCFC rakes for safe and cost-efficient transportation of fly ash from thermal power plants to our facilities. We expect 10 rakes to be delivered in the current fiscal year. We will also introduce EV trucks in a few select routes, which will be started by Q2 FY25. Because of these initiatives, our logistics costs have reduced by 8% to ₹1,323 per ton in Q1 FY25 from ₹1,436 per ton in Q1 FY24. To secure our limestone supplies in Q1 FY25, we have won bids for another two mines having reserves of 275 million tons. On ESG, we are committed to net zero by 2050 for Ambuja and ACC, with near-term targets validated by SBTi. 60% power sourced will be from green power by FY28, which will help us to reduce carbon footprint. Ambuja is 11 times water positives, establishing leadership in water governance, reached an impressive 8 times plastic negativity for Ambuja through co-processing of plastic waste in cement kilns. Ambuja and ACC put together use more than 5.7 million tons of waste-derived resources in Q1 FY25, embracing circular economy. We are pledged to plant 8.3 million trees by 2030. Ambuja and ACC created societal values for more than 4.6 million people by contributing to fields like healthcare, education, employment, and sustainable livelihoods. We are optimizing the infrastructure at Sanghi that would enable efficient transportation of cement from the plant to the jetty and through mechanized conveyor belts and then using the marine and sea route. On the industry side, cement demand during FY24 stood higher by 7%-8% at 422 million tons and is likely to grow at 7%-9% in FY25 to around 450 million tons, driven by strong correlation with GDP growth and rising demand from housing and infrastructure sectors. The government aims to invest $3 trillion in infrastructure and housing development through ongoing Housing for All schemes, National Infrastructure Plan, PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan, and others. An outlay of INR 1,111,000 crore for capital expenditure has been allotted in budget FY25, which represents 3.4% of GDP. Phase 4 of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana will be launched to provide all-weather connectivity to 25,000 rural habitations. We believe all these measures are expected to bring buoyancy in the cement demand. To conclude, as I mentioned earlier at multiple occasions, Adani Cement will benefit from accelerated growth, lower costs, and group synergies, all of which will contribute to lead the market and achieve sustainable performance in the near future. The pace of CAPEX has increased, which will help to achieve targeted growth ahead of time. With this, I now hand over to my colleague, my CFO, Vinod Bahety. Thank you, Ajay. I think Ajay has already covered in detail, but a few points from my side. Another sustainable quarter and sustainable EBITDA in an otherwise subdued industry condition. I strongly believe this has been possible on the back of the strength of cost leadership, which last eight quarters we have been working on. Better fuel management is reflected in the results. In the coming quarters, the benefit of green power we will see, which will start from August onwards, and that will further accentuate our position of strength in terms of cost optimization. Our focus on digitization, ESG, and productivity, both machine and manpower, will give commendable results in coming quarters. Ongoing expansions in parallel at almost more than 10 sites, which Ajay has referred to, which are at various different levels, will see commendable progress in our organic growth plans, while the integration of Penna, this quarter, will give us immediate results as part of our inorganic growth. So with this, I will pass on to Deepak and to the coordinator in terms of Q&A, please. Thank you very much. We will now begin the question and answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star and one on their touch-tone telephone. If you wish to remove yourself from the question queue, you may press star and two. Participants are requested to use handsets while asking a question. Ladies and gentlemen, we will wait for a moment while the question queue assembles. The first question is from the line of Rishi Kothari from PI Square Investments. Please go ahead. Hello. Thank you so much for the opportunity. My first question was regarding the current bifurcation of private and public infrastructure investment that we did. For example, what is the bifurcation of private sector as well as the public sector? I don't understand. Could you please elaborate your question again? So what's the bifurcation of our cement supply to private sector and public sector? Okay. Sure. Okay. Okay. So Rishi, largely at an industry level, we consume about 64%-65% cement for housing, all kinds of housing. A large component is individual housing, and then it goes into commercial residential. About 23%-24% of cement gets consumed by infra. In this segment, it is largely government, but also in some cases, you have private players who are doing BOT projects. So I think a large part of your question gets answered in this segment. At the last segment, it's about 15%, which is commercial institutions. I think this is largely private sectors because Government seldom is here in this area. So I think to answer your question, the infra segment is 24%. In this, a large part of it is also government, but also some big companies who are also doing BOT projects, road projects, bridge projects, etc. I hope I've answered your question. In general, around 70%-75% overall, we have a public infrastructure supply, and the rest is on private sector supplies. Of the 24% of the total demand, which is for the infra segment, a large part of it is government, but also a lot of it is done by private companies. In fact, Rishi, that is a reverse what you've told. So it is like actually 75%-80% is private, and 20%-25% is actually public. When we say public, it is like government-driven infrastructure projects and all. Okay. Got it. Got it. Yeah. Thank you so much for that. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Navin Sahadeo from ICICI Securities. Please go ahead. Yeah. Good afternoon, sir. Thank you for the opportunity. So two quick questions. First, on the green power bit, you said that first phase of that 200 MW is a little delayed in my view, and I think it's coming now in Q2. So I wanted to understand how is there I mean, does that mean that the entire 1,000 MW project gets delayed because the earlier guidance for that was Q1 FY26? And just related to this, how much should the CAPEX distribution I mean, I would rather request Vinod to give this breakup on entire CAPEX through green power and other for 25 and 26. That's my first question. No, sure. Thanks, Naveen. So in terms of your first question, our June 2025, which is Q1 of FY26, remains very much firm there. In terms of the first 200 MW, which is now coming in August, and the almost 650 MW we are targeting by March 2025, and another, say, 150 by May 2025, which will actually compare to almost 1,000 MW by first quarter of FY26. In terms of the CAPEX, as you would recall, close to INR 6,000 crore is the overall outlay for this 1,000 MW initiative, and out of which close to INR 1,500 crore already has been invested, and balance INR 4,500 crore will be incurred in the coming next 12 months, out of which another INR 500 crore are expected by September, and so on and so forth. But as we move in the coming quarters, lots of this completion will be happening, as I mentioned, and therefore the CAPEX will be incurred as well, let's say by June 2026. Yeah. I mean, I will also give you an insight so that you are aware of this, that out of this 1,000 MW, close to 160 MW is wind, and close to 840 MW is actually solar. And which also, if I have to give you further details and to the larger analysts and all, 300 MW is actually in Rajasthan, and out of the solar 840 MW, and the rest 540 MW is in Gujarat, and also the 160 MW of wind is also in Gujarat. Kutch is the one where we are putting up this large investment. Appreciate it, sir. So my second question then was about the Penna acquisition. So I would want to understand because from the presentation, I see there is some delay in the timeline for the Jodhpur unit. I think we were targeting around May, June next year, but there seems to be some delay both in Krishnapatnam and the Jodhpur unit, so to say. And also in the same breath, I want to understand how should one look at getting these Penna acquisitions in our numbers? In the sense, you said it will complete by Q2. So just wanted to understand, will the second half then should see full benefit of the acquisitions for us, and will Ambuja Cement as a brand be launched in South India? Thanks. Okay. So I will cover on the acquisition part, and then Ajay can chip in on the rollout of the brand. So far, as the status of acquisition is concerned, it is in very fairly advanced stages. So I would say that in a fortnight kind of thing, we are targeting to achieve full closing, and therefore you will definitely get the benefit of integration in Q2. Q3 will be where it will be 100% available for the quarter. So that is on the status of the acquisition. Now, so far as the grant strategy is concerned, over to Ajay. Yeah. So what we are going to do is clearly, once this integration is done, we believe there is a synergy between our Adani Group plants, especially ACC plants in South, and the Penna units. I think in our earlier call, which we did at the time of acquisition, we also laid out the rationale for the investment and also the uptake we will get from it both on volume and cost. As part of the strategy to enter South, we will be playing with our Ambuja and ACC brands. We will also be using Penna wherever we feel that can add value for us to penetrate the market. So we'll be using all three brands, Ambuja, ACC, and Penna. Naveen, I missed to answer your question on the CAPEX part. Both Krishnapatnam and the Marwar Mundwa project of Penna very much remain intact on the timelines, and therefore no concerns from our side on any delay over there. Understood. So just one bit here. Penna as a brand continues to stay with us? Will we continue to use that? Yes. As a brand, that remains in the company which we have acquired. So we will use this to the extent of our sales requirements. But as you know, we have strong brands of Ambuja and ACC. ACC has a very strong positioning in large parts of South. Ambuja also has a very good presence in especially AP region. So we'll play on our strengths and ensure that the fastest ramp-up and capacity utilization is enabled at the highest price and also at the lowest cost. That we are okay with. Understood. Helpful, sir. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Ritesh Shah from Investec. Please go ahead. Hi sir. Thanks for the opportunity. A couple of questions. First one is, sir, what do you make of consolidation in the space? Also, would you like to highlight the underlying levers which are driving the strength, say, for Ambuja or for the wider industry? That's the first question. Okay. So I think it's a very interesting question. We're looking at quarter one demand and sales. The share of top five companies has come to 60% versus some 45-odd% in 2018. So I think just by the size and scale, we are already seeing consolidation happening. I think it's always good as we mature as an industry that you can either have an organic growth or an inorganic. We are doing both. I can speak more for Adani Group. You have seen we rolled out a program of 140 million, and that program did not have any acquisitions. However, having said that, whenever a good opportunity has come in, whether it is Sanghi, whether it is Asian, whether it is the Tuticorin Grinding that we acquired from My Home, or whether it is Penna, which we are acquiring, which on top of cement assets of INR 10 million operating, INR 4 million to be built, we also have INR 2.5 million of bulk cement terminals, five terminals, and a position in Sri Lanka and a shipping infrastructure in the entire eastern corridor. If you look at all this, I think what we have done is we have used very wisely our resources. They acquire good assets in the markets which are fitting perfectly well with our growth strategy, and we have not at all gone on a rampant expansion, but we have gone on a very structured expansion. I think you used the word frenzy. I don't think there's any frenzy. All businesses use the money very carefully, and whatever money we use, we have to ensure we get the returns for that. So maybe Vinod, you want to add something? No, no. I think so it is also preempting in terms of, and which I can actually highlight for our acquisition of Sanghi and Penna. I'm sure they also have their own math, which is actually coming below $90 a ton. Therefore, in terms of engineering, I think we have been very, very careful, methodical, and in a structured manner which we are doing. And I think both organic and inorganic is going very, very well for us. Our integral target for new growth is less than $80. In fact, the target given to the operating team is to further drive it down by another $5-$10. Therefore, acquisition also for us has to meet some tough internal checks. Whenever we feel that it makes sense, build versus buy, we apply that very, very diligently. So far, we have been very responsible. You have seen we have grown. We have grown 35%, but we have grown profitably. We have reduced our cost substantially. We have committed to reduce the cost by about INR 550. We are well on track. All initiatives are structural initiatives, be it green power, be it waste recovery, be it own coal mines, be it long-term contracting, be it structural restructuring of logistics, be it taking some very bold steps in the market, which included warehouse optimization, which included more going direct. I think we have taken all those brave steps, and I'm very happy that my team in Adani Cement business is diligently working towards this. On top of it, now we are driving a very big initiative, which is digitization. Whatever we do, we want to do it in a digital manner because the company will become so big, there is no other way we can have strong performance other than through digital means. Thank you, sir, for a very comprehensive answer. So my second question is, what do you make of limestone lease expiries come 2030 with respect to Ambuja, ACC, and wider industry? And how do you think will this have a bearing on consolidation and profit pools overall for the industry? Very good question, Ritesh. So let me answer first for Adani Group because then I'll jump on the industry, larger industry. So for us, we have about 19 leases which will come up for renewal by 2030. Most of them are in ACC. However, out of those 19, by the time we hit 2030, we will have only 11 of them left because the remaining would have already lived their life. So our strategy would be to use the limestone from them during this period. Of the 11, there are only three sites. We have alternate plans in place. I think as per the law, the right of first refusal rests with the current player. Other than that, I think we are in the same ship as anybody else because this is the rule of law, and we have to all abide by, as per the Government of India, mining laws. On a larger issue, a lot of representations have been made by FIMI, by ASSOCHAM, CII, I believe also from the cement industry. Individually, all of us have also made in various forums and forums. I believe in some cases for public sector enterprises, government has relaxed some norms. This is something to be discussed. I think we also made an appeal to the NITI Aayog. I think people are seized of it. We'll have to find a way to how best we can comply with the requirement at the same time, not have a disruption. But you can see for us, it's not too much. We have today, with Penna coming in, 50 operating sites in Adani Cement, of which only 4 sites will have leases which are coming in 2030. Not a major concern for us. Just to reemphasize, A for Ambuja, NIL leases for 2030 expiry. Industry level, it is 25%. ACC, the percentage is much lesser. Therefore, at Adani Cement level, we are well placed compared to the others. This is very useful. Thanks for giving the numbers of 0%-23% as well. So the question is, say for Ambuja, if the lease expiry is lower, the cost of inflation, even with ROFR, is likely to be lower. So that is where I asked a question specifically on the profit pool besides the cost-saving initiatives. Do you think there will be a substantial shift in profit pool? How are you looking at it? Come again, what do you mean substantial shift of profit pool? I didn't follow. Sir, you indicated that at Ambuja level, there's not much of lease expiries which are there as compared to the industry, which is at 23%. What this would essentially mean is that the cost of inflation for the rest of the industry will be significantly high as compared to Ambuja. Now, if the cost for the industry increases more than us, the pricing will increase, and hence our profitability pool technically should move up. So I think, Ritesh, I have to thank you. You already given an answer to your own question. Do I have to even answer anything after the bata diya? Right. The idea was to understand how are you looking at this particular scenario? Is this something which will drive consolidation? I don't think this will drive consolidation. This is known to the whole industry, and some leases are coming for renewal in 2030. But there's a law that after 50 years, all leases have to come back for renewal. So this journey will continue as India moves forward. The cement capacity in India, according to me, will hit 1 billion tons. If it's not in too distant a future, I can see it already by next 7-8 years. We already had 42-30 million. And to double it itself to 900 or 1 billion is not such a big time. It will double very fast. And for that, we need limestone. We will certainly be making representations to the government, and I'm sure there will be some way out. There's still some couple of years' time we have for that. But what happens, it happens for the whole industry. Thank you so much for the answers. Thank you. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all the participants, please limit your question to two per participant. The next question is from the line of Jyoti from Nirmal Bang Equities. Please go ahead. Thank you, sir, for the opportunity. I have two questions. One is, when do we see Sanghi completely optimizing in terms of, or rather ramping up in terms of capacity? By when? And when can we expect, I mean, like 85% or 90% from Sanghi cement happening? Second is, with UltraTech becoming almost like 180 million tons and their focus only on taking the capacity minimum at 70% utilization, will actually keep the prices muted, and that will be a drag on the industry for the entire FY25. FY26, things could even don't know how it is going to pan out. What is your view on that? So let me first answer your question on Sanghi. We are progressing very well on Sanghi. As of now, we are also seeing a substantial improvement in our volumes that we sell in the Gujarat state. There's almost like double the volumes we are doing because of Sanghi, number one. Number two, Sanghi has two kilns. One was the earlier kiln, and second one, they only set up 3, 4 years back. Both the kilns and the plants we are put under major refurbishment program. This was part of our acquisition strategy, was budgeted in our acquisition cost. I believe this whole program will come to an end by end of October or at the most mid of November. After that, I believe the last quarter of current FY, we should be hitting more or less full utilization of the clinker. And then the next level of investments in Sanghi would be at our jetty and the shipping infrastructure, which also we have done first-level dredging. I believe we have to watch this monsoon. Immediately after monsoon, the next set of investments would be made. So that's the question. On the wind power and also, we are considering connecting some wind investment into Sanghi because it is very, very windy in a very right region. We have a lot of land. I think in time to come, we'll come back and talk to you more once we have signed that contract. And this will be over and above the 1,000 megawatts? Yes, yes. Thanks for that. So we are already running one program of 1,000 megawatts. At Sanghi, we might make further investments so that that plant becomes very cost-efficient. Wind, as you know, comes at around less than ₹4, and the current cost over there is more than ₹7, ₹7.5. So there is a clear ₹3, ₹3.5 upside on the power cost. So your second question is the more important one. I don't want to comment on the competition. That's not right. I can comment on cement industry at large. Prices have taken a toll on this quarter. Multiple reasons. One, the industry growth was a little tepid, largely on account of elections, and then, of course, overall drag almost for two months in multiple elections. And rain started early June. So that had an impact. We have seen that all over. You have not seen a very healthy increase. And on top of the volumes and some new plants which have come in, I think it's clearly added on some competitive pressures in the market. You're right. As we speak to you, July has again had a very high rainfall. But I think post-Diwali, again this year, and with all the budgetary grants and also announcements, I read immediately post-budget, a lot of analyst reports came out, and people are saying at least 4%-5% additional demand growth in cement can happen once these projects see a rotation. So I think the good news is on the demand side, we will again be back to 7%-8% growth. There is always an overhang of about 100-150 million tons of cement capacity in India. So no one player can be responsible for too much. I think it's there at the large country level. What is important is to see if we have 8%-9% demand growth every year, we will add about 40 million tons of additional demand. I think over a period of time, and then if you go geography-wise, you will still find some geographies which are about 78%-79% utilized, and some geographies which may be 65%, like I'm saying, South India. So we have to basically cut and paste and look at India in pieces, not as one piece. So subsequent to that question, again, two things. One is, do we see high maintenance costs being built up in the second quarter? Because usually, monsoons is a time where most of the plants go for maintenance. So obviously, there'll be a huge inventory buildup, and therefore, again, a high cost of raw material in the second quarter as well, which will again take a beating on the EBITDA. And second thing is, if first quarter was not such a great quarter, still ACC has done 10.2 million tons in terms of volume, which I believe is a significant number. So basically, as you see, when you see our presentation, which is loaded on our website, you have ACC numbers, you have Ambuja numbers, you have Sanghi numbers. We have an MSA under which both ACC and Ambuja, we use each other's facilities and try and optimize our distribution and cost to serve. Under which you have seen ACC is a high growth, but if you see at consolidated Ambuja level, the growth is with CLC, as we call it, cement and clinker, 3%, and cement standalone is about 1%. So I think basically more the market has been mellowed. As I mentioned, the industry demand also, I'm not looking at more than 1%-1.5% for this quarter. So we are more or less in line with the industry demand. Prices have taken a knock, and that knock has stayed away, reflected in the EBITDA per ton. Some part of it we have mitigated with our power and fuel cost, with our freight cost. We have seen raw material cost slightly higher. This is on account of clinker purchases. I believe as part of the Penna acquisition, and one of the reasons of that is also Penna will give us very good quality and low-cost clinker to our grinding units in south, including Tuticorin, including Thondebhavi, including Madukkarai of ACC. And I think that you will see an uptick coming in once Penna comes to play. And therefore, the cost of this quarter will get mitigated. And for the other one which I asked, in terms of this quarter for maintenance costs, do we expect plants shutting down? So again, we'll have an inventory buildup. We have 14+ kilns. Each kiln has to take its scheduled 20-day shutdown. Some of them have happened in the previous quarter. One of them was not to happen, and therefore you have seen a little bit extra. Rest of them will happen from now till December. But I don't see any worry on that count. Okay. Cool. Thank you so much, sir. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prateek Kumar from Jefferies Group. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi, Nitin sir. My first question is on your tax position. So you mentioned out of INR 60 billion drop in tax position, INR 33 billion was towards expansion and related initiatives. So the Penna-related payment, is it done already on the balance sheet in first quarter? So Prateek, hi. In terms of Penna, Penna no. So like in June quarter, Penna is not on the cash outflow. But as you also covered, a major part of the outgoings on account of the CAPEX. And on top of it, you have payment of dividend, which is for the year, but gets paid out, which is closer to INR 600-odd crore. Then you have a healthy tax outflow. And on top of it, the Tuticorin acquisition closer to INR 415-odd crore, which has actually gone over there. And what we have also seen that, while as I mentioned that little subdued quarter from our overall industry perspective, it also results into buildup of inventory and also buildup of receivables. And therefore, you have seen some uptick in the overall working capital. But good part is heavy outflow on the CAPEX actually is a positive thing given that the overall organic growth is now getting good full momentum. In my initial answers to the question, I highlighted how now speedily things are moving on the green power, which will see a good outflow of almost like INR 4,500 crores in the next 12 months. So that is overall from an outflow perspective. As of now, we are sitting on closer to INR 18,300 crores of cash and cash equivalent on Ambuja Consolidated. Okay. And tell me, what is the expectation for full-year CAPEX ex of around INR 3,500 crore outflow for Penna? So full-year CAPEX, Prateek, we have a target of closer to INR 10,000 crores, both the growth CAPEX as well as the maintenance CAPEX. And after factoring in the Penna outflow and after factoring in the CAPEX outflow and with the overall operating cash flows, our expected end-year cash and cash equivalent will be closer to 10,000-odd crores. And as I mentioned, this will actually after the outflow for the Penna and the CapEx. So there will be still a healthy cash and cash equivalents of closer to INR 10,000 crore. Sure, sir. This is my question. Thank you. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Rahul Gupta from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Yeah. Hi. Thanks for taking my question. A couple of questions. So just taking the previous participant's question forward, so we saw around INR 20 billion sequential decline in cash position for ACC as well. So is it more driven by a buildup of inventory and higher working capital outflow, or can you just please help us give breakdown of this INR 20 billion? And my first question is. Thank you. Yeah. Sure. If I answer your first question or you want to put your second? Yeah. That works. Yeah. Okay. Same again, both ACC and Ambuja and, of course, Sanghi as well. And on a concern when I've highlighted, the factors are the same, more or less. Even in ACC, we have seen a good buildup on CAPEX as well as, of course, on the working capital as well and dividend and tax. These are key components which also reflects for ACC. It reflects more on the CAPEX part for Sanghi and also more on the CAPEX part for Ambuja as well as the working capital. So these are the key factors which I actually have seen the outflow. No, I understand that. So the reason I asked this question is we are not seeing any material CAPEX plan for ACC at least in the near term. So what specifically is driving this large INR 2,000-odd crores? As we had highlighted, ACC is building up an office building in Ahmedabad, and we are also putting up an office in Delhi. So that is like one CapEx is coming in the books of ACC. And on top of it, some of the investments when we acquired the Rajpur unit and when we also are modernizing the Wadi unit, you will see line items there in terms of the CapExes. So in September, when you will actually see the balance sheet of ACC, you will actually be able to see those numbers. Okay. Great. Thank you so much for this clarification. My second question is more on your strategy. We have ACC as a listed subsidiary. We have Sanghi as a listed subsidiary. And now Penna would come under Ambuja as well. So can you just help us understand what the management strategy is from here on with respect to consolidating everything into one entity? How should we look at all these companies going from here? Thank you. So as far as we have some subsidiaries, not subsidiaries, just concerns in the group that we already rolled a plan to merger with Adani Cementation and Adani Industries, which basically has limestone leases in Gujarat. It has a cement grinding unit and a land parcel for a jetty in Mumbai, Raigad. And it also has a grinding unit of the H and also an expansion going on at the same. So that is phase one that cleans up and brings it into one pocket. As far as Penna is concerned, it's acquired through Ambuja. And at the end of the completion, it will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Ambuja. It won't be a listed entity. So to that extent, we have to deal with it differently. Today, we don't have a mandate to speak about that since it's currently under acquisition. As far as Ambuja and ACC is concerned, I've repeated time and again that as of now, we run our cement business as one management organization. All the advantages, synergies we are driving through the MSA. And MSA has now reached a level where we are far higher than what we were two years back. And I'm very happy that teams are working together. One procurement, one sales, one operations, one finance, one digital, so on and so forth. So I think to that extent, and yet we have brands in the market which are separate. As of now, we have no such plans. Whenever we have something to announce, we will certainly come out and talk about it. Got it. So just to understand this clearly, right now, the company does not have any plan to take ACC and/or Sanghi, and the company will have three different listed companies as of now. We don't have any clarity on that right now. Correct? No, no. Absolutely. See, as Ajay highlighted, when the clarity emerges, it will be also informed to you. So obviously, when things rectify, you are the first person to be informed, as you assured. So yeah, I think we will just move on this point now. And at the right, when things move, we will inform the markets. Yes. Thank you so much. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Pulkit Patni from Goldman Sachs. Please go ahead. Yeah. Thank you for taking my question. My first question is on capital allocation. Given the fact that you have a stated policy that your growth is going to be either internal accrual funded, there'll be no debt involved, the fact that we are putting in quite a large sum of money behind these solar power plants, and the fact that we are talking about the industry also growing quite meaningfully, and I'm sure we are going to want to match up with that market share, why is it that the focus is to install green power when you can actually get it from multiple sources, including our group company? I just wanted to understand what's the thought behind putting so much money in renewable power when we can actually buy it from outside. That's question number 1. So Pulkit, very good question. When we took over the business and we laid out a certain roadmap, one of the strategic levers, see, cement is one of the highest CO2 emitters. On one end, we have 2050 zero-emission target. 2030, we have a target to reduce our CO2 emissions, I think, for the entire cement business to about sub-400 or around 400. We have to mitigate those as part of our ESG responsibility. Globally, in Europe and all, there's carbon tax. We know that. It's not there yet today, but someday it might also come. So we have to be very aware that as a responsible company, we do things which are not only environment-compliant but also cost-effective. With this strategy and with this investment of INR 6,000 crore, which my colleague just explained, we are going to also get a benefit of close to ₹100 per ton on the cost of production, thereby improving the EBITDA and thereby improving my performance. Now, as far as our expansion CAPEX and growth CAPEX is concerned, the company over a period of time targets reduction of cost by about 550. Green is about ₹100 of that 550. There are other initiatives also, which include waste recovery, which I spoke in my opening. We are already hitting by the end of this year 180, which we started was only 40. And our end state would be more closer to 300 by the time we hit FY28 on waste alone. So it's not just the solar we are also working on. Solar is something which pays by itself. The return on investment is sharper, improves the performance. Then, on an average, the run rate at which we estimate we are going to deliver our EBITDA and bottom line. At the same time, the cash burn we will have for our new expansion. We believe over the next 5 years, we would have adequate cash. This year, after acquiring 14 million of assets and building another 10 million, 24 million, we would still have a cash left of about INR 10,000-INR 11,000 crore because next year, we'll also be adding from our operating. And thereby, we still have a healthy cash flow as we move around. So we have done that math, Pulkit. And it makes perfect sense for us that to turn green, to turn lowest cost, and I think to turn lowest cost is the only license to expand your capacity. We want to deliver on both accounts. Sure, sir. That's clear. My second question is we've done about ₹810 EBITDA per ton this quarter. And based on the target, we have to get to ₹3,650 cost. We are looking at about ₹800 EBITDA per ton improvement from here on. Any sense on whether this is based on some assumption on pricing? Because I think while you're doing a lot on cost, I think pricing is something that has been disappointing in general. So I'm just trying to get to the ask, which could look a little steeper based on where the industry stands as we speak. Clearly, you picked up the right question. What has happened is prices today, most of the companies have fallen anywhere between 5%-6%. And the same has been the trend for us as well. So for this quarter, the price has fallen more like ₹373, ₹80 a ton. Versus that, EBITDA has fallen by INR 200. So part of it, we have mitigated through volume and cost. And part of it is directly reflected in the EBITDA decline. Now, this price is the lowest price, I believe, in the last 36 months in most of the markets, especially in some of the markets where there is extra capacity. I believe going forward, the trend will change again after Diwali, which happens every year because right now, we're in monsoon. And then we should again go back to the normal pricing. Our estimate of ₹550 cost is independent of price because cost is something that is in my hand. Price is something which is more discovered in the marketplace. Like you have seen in this quarter, it has taken a beating. It's also taken a beating because of tepid demand, which I mentioned largely on account of elections and early monsoon. Sure, sir. That's clear. Thank you and best of luck. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, in order to ensure that the management is able to address questions from all the participants, please limit your question to one per participant. If you have a follow-up question, I request you to rejoin the queue. The next question is from the line of Ashish Jain from Macquarie. Please go ahead. Hi, sir. Good afternoon. Sir, my first question was on the ₹500. Sorry to interrupt you, sir. May I request you to please use your handset? Yeah. Am I audible now? Yes, sir. Better. Yeah. So on this ₹550 cost savings that we have been talking about, how much of it is already there? Is it possible to quantify that? So Ashish, when we started the journey way back in September, our cost was more like ₹4,800 odd, which was brought down in the first year to ₹4,400. And currently, as you can see, we were still at ₹4,400 odd. So I think some part of it has already come in, but some part of it is currently projects underway. So what is underway is full utilization of our waste recovery. And so the number was September, we were at ₹4,844. FY23, we were at ₹4,740. And FY24, we were at ₹4,184. So from that ₹4,184, we are targeting of ₹530. It will come from basically freight. It will come from power and fuel. It will come from raw material. And it will also come from optimizing our other fixed costs and other expenses. So I think that's the journey. You have the numbers with you, all the 3 years. Sir, just 2 clarifications on that. One, earlier in the call, did you say that the secondary lead distance we plan to reduce by 100 km? Yes, I said that. But that will happen by FY2028-2029 when I have a full play of ₹ 140 million. And also, when we started, we were at about 34 units, 35 locations. We will end this year by 50+ locations. As the number of locations increase, especially the grinding, and you ship your clinker by railway wagons, some of which are owned by us, thereby giving us also advantage on on-time service and also savings because of this initiative. We then distribute cement at a radius of about 100 km. And that's how this number was calculated. And we are very much tracking that. Plus the key transportation, which will enter, this will really increase us. And this is for the primary, not for the secondary. Primary lead, I'm saying, will get reduced. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Sumangal from Kotak Securities. Please go ahead. Hi, Abhishek. Thanks for the chance. First question is on the volume growth. So if you look at our growth, around 2.6% at consolidated level is still much lower than the peers who have reported. Could be the case of higher utilization. So just want to understand by when do we expect these losses to kind of reverse given capacity expansion is more back-ended in FY25? Should we expect markets again starting from 26 only? Sumangal, last quarter, if you saw, we had a 17% growth in volume, which I think was pretty much in line or better than the industry. In this quarter, we had two markets where we suffered volume losses. You will also find from our investor deck that we have loaded because we give now break-up even region-wise. Basically, East Region and South Region is the two areas where we were losing out on volume growth. We gained market in North. We maintained market in Center. And we gained market share in West. In the East and South, we had a little bit of a capacity constraint this quarter. As I mentioned, there was one unscheduled shutdown. And therefore, even though utilization was higher in East, we're still not able to recover fully. So I believe this should get corrected from the current quarter. Understood. Just one clarification, this office building CapEx, can you share detail? What is the exact amount? And is it being shared by other group companies? Some details on this? No. We are constructing a full-fledged cement house in Ahmedabad. And this will be almost closer to INR 600-700 crores. And another office which we're constructing as a regional office is in Delhi. And that would be also tied below INR 500 crores. So together, let us say about INR 1,000 crores will be the two buildings coming up both in Ahmedabad and Delhi. Thank you. The next question is from the line of Prateek Maheshwari from HSBC. Please go ahead. Sir, thank you for the opportunity. Sir, first question I had on the prices. Sir, if I look at the two quarters, cement prices or your realization itself is down about 11%. So my question was, sir, now in the quarters ahead, you'll be looking to ramp up on your Sanghi Industries asset and also on the Penna. So would you see that the prices could ramp up or such as if the prices could also further see some pressure? Or are you seeing the bottom is there now in these prices? So Prateek, from my perspective, I think our prices were down about 5%-6%, not 11%. We can separately collect and see where it is coming from. That's what we have reported, and that's what it is. Prices today, as I mentioned, for all companies, we have seen sequential decline. It's also, as I said, largely because of this year, we had elections and four multiple phases. So the entire month, we saw challenges on that. Prices generally tend to recover after the monsoon season. So I believe post-monsoon, we should, like normal trend, prices should follow the normal trajectory because demand supply tends to match more in the quarters of December and March. And as I mentioned, in the budget, there are very good initiatives which should also help us give that extra respite of demand, which should also help improve market sentiments. Okay. So got it. Sir, actually, I meant from the December quarter to June quarter, the prices have fallen not that much. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I was looking at last year's YOY. Yeah. Sir, the other thing- is gone about 2%-2.5%. And YOY is gone about 6%-7%. Yeah. Sir, the other thing I wanted to just check upon is - 2%-2.5% decline in prices sequentially. Okay. Sir, I wanted to check about, again, the comment on the cost front, right? So ₹ 3,650 operating cost target by FY28. I think the ask now has become much higher, about ₹ 800 per ton as well, right? While you have given us across these segments, you have given us what is the potential of reduction. Just again, sir, on that thought, just wanted to understand, sir, is this target of 3,650 regardless of the inflation that we see? Because every year, any which is we are seeing for the last seven, eight years, we are seeing 1%-2% inflation. And that would itself make this number much higher versus 3,650. So just wanted to understand, is there a margin of safety or this is just on the current prices and the inflation would play its role? So Prateek, basically, as I said, I'll repeat again 4 numbers. 4,844 was the cost in September 2022. 4,740 was the cost in 2023. 4,184 was the cost in FY24. From the 4,184 cost, we want to achieve at least ₹500-₹530 reduction. We are firmly on track. Yes, this is the way things stand today. All other costs, we are very clear. It's the energy cost, which generally gets adjusted because today, coal, there is an index which gets adjusted every few years. If the index gets adjusted, this cost gets adjusted. But our target is to get to this cost. But if there's a general inflation, it will also still give me relative benefit of my own number versus this number. So I think net net, it will directly show in the EBITDA. Yeah. Yeah. But there are also some basically other offsetting items, Prateek, like this number which you had given was Pre- Penna, in fact, right? Now, Penna with all the logistics thing, I'm not even right now factoring in. So some of these, for example, when you say inflation and then there's some of the other measures which will offset, on an overall basis, I think it's what we have considered that we should achieve 3,650. T hank you. Ladies and gentlemen, we will take that as the last question. I would now like to hand the conference over to Mr. Deepak Balwani for closing comments. So thank you for your time. I hope most of the questions have been answered. If you have any unresolved queries, please contact us. And we look forward to the next quarterly call before Diwali. Thank you, Nomura, for organizing this. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. On behalf of Ambuja Cements, that concludes this conference. Thank you for joining us, and you may now disconnect your lines. Thank you.